It took a while for my second post in my comparison. The last couple of days have been busy. I’ve had the chance to shoot the three cameras at some social events here and there – running into many low-light situations. So my next point of comparison is:

Autofocus:
I love the way all three cameras look and handle with all those external controls. And I love the excellent lenses – particularly the Fujinon 35mm 1.4. However, I am again and again frustrated by the performance of the autofocus. From my experience, there is no difference between the Fujifilm X-E1 and the X-Pro1 in terms of autofocus performance with the latest firmware on both cameras. Similar findings have been made elsewhere. Autofocus struggles in low light and with backlit subjects. I came from using manual lenses on a Sony Nex-7, so I am not a „spoiled“ DLSR-user, but I somehow feel I am missing much more shots with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and X-E1 than with manual focussing on the Nex-7 (using focus peaking). I had several situations where the AF (slowly) hunted and my subjects were getting impatient. Of course I am really talking low-light here – shooting around ISO 1600 to 6400 with the lens at 1.4. Quite surprisingly, my impression is that the Fujifilm X100 actually seems to struggle less with autofocus than the other cameras (comparing those with the 35mm 1.4). Maybe the reason is just that the X100 needs to move less glass, so hunting is possibly quicker. Nevertheless, I felt less frustrated with the X100 than with the other two cameras. I would be very interested hearing other peoples thoughts on this.

From the point of view of autofocus performance, I would definitely keep the X100, because the main purpose of that camera (to me) is that it can always with me. For such a camera, I don’t expect lightning fast AF performance. However, I would expect a little more from the X-Pro1 and the X-E1.

Autofocus for me is really the one reason that sometimes makes me doubt, whether switching to Fujifilm X system was really the right decision, considering that a small DSLR (e.g. Pentax K-5 II) would just give me much more reliable autofocus. Autofocus is perfectly OK if you shoot outdoors and shoot mainly static or slowly moving subjects. So for one part of my photography this is perfectly OK. However, shooting my children outside, at home or at events is currently another big part of my photography. So I would really like to own a main camera system that can cover both needs……

Fuji X-Pro Curation

Aspects of Digital Photography focusing on the Fuji X-Pro1/X-Pro2, X-T10, X-T1, X-E1/E2 and X100S/T - photographer, reviews, samples and more. The most comprehensive Collection on Fuji X-Pro1 articles, reviews and news on the Web! View also a collective of photographers from around the world shooting almost exclusively with the Fujifilm X-Pro1, X-T10, X-T1, X-E1/E2 and the X100S/T.